The plaintiff who filed the transvaginal mesh lawsuit slated for the third bellwether trial in the federal C.R. Bard litigation has been granted a continuance, and the case has been placed on indefinite hold. According to court documents, one of her expert witnesses is unavailable for the time being. The case had been scheduled to go before a jury on January 10, 2014.

The claim was chosen as the last in a series of vaginal mesh lawsuits selected for the proceeding’s first round of bellwether trials.Thousands of similar cases have been filed in the C.R. Bard litigation underway in U.S. District Court, Southern District of West Virginia. All of the lawsuits allege that the company’s Avaulta devices caused serious vaginal mesh complications that include, mesh erosion, chronic vaginal pain, and organ damage.

The plaintiff in this transvaginal mesh lawsuit was granted a continuance just two days before the case was to go to trial, following the hospitalization of the witness’s wife. Plaintiff and her counsel have been diligent in preparing this case for trial, and were present and ready for trial in Charleston, West Virginia when they received urgent news from one of their primary witnesses in the case,” the Motion for Continuance states.

The federal judge who is overseeing this proceeding did grant the request in an Order that had been issued on the same day the motion was filed. The Order also indicated that the trial would be rescheduled for a date sometime in the future.

Vaginal Mesh Lawsuits Mounting in Federal Litigation

More than 40,000 transvaginal mesh lawsuits have been filed against C.R. Bard and other pelvic mesh manufacturers, including Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon, Inc.; American Medical Systems, Inc.; and Boston Scientific, Corp., in the Southern District of West Virginia. The claims make similar allegations regarding the risk of serious vaginal mesh complications, and accuse these companies of failing to sufficiently warn patients and doctors about their potential side effects.

Other consolidated litigations involving vaginal mesh lawsuits are also underway in state courts. For example, as of January 2014, C.R. Bard was named in more than 920 cases that are pending in a multicounty proceeding in New Jersey’s Atlantic County Superior Court.

Considering A Transvaginal Mesh Lawsuit?

Victims of vaginal mesh complications may be entitled to compensation from the manufacturer of their device. To learn more about filing a transvaginal mesh lawsuit, please contact Bernstein Liebhard LLP for a free case review by calling (888) 217-3033.